On Wed, Mar 09, 2016 at 12:15:47PM +0100, Guillem Jover wrote: > Hi! > > On Wed, 2016-03-09 at 07:10:25 +0000, Niels Thykier wrote: > > Julian Andres Klode: > > > Since a few years, APT supports an "Important" field that is similar > > > to Essential, but without the requirement for those packages to be > > > installed (they just need to remain installed) and the ordering > > > constraints. Previously, it was already an alias for Essential in > > > APT. > > > > > > I relaxed the meaning a few years ago to make it suitable for use > > > on site-specific or system-specific configuration meta packages. > > > > > > I propose to make this field official and add support to dpkg > > > for it, as there are new use cases for it, like init systems, > > > e2fsprogs, and mount - packages that are not needed on all > > > systems (like chroots), but once installed should probably > > > remain installed. > > > > > > I attached a patch to add support for dpkg, it's also discussed > > > in a spec in the wiki. > > > > [1] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/Spec/ImportantField > > As mentioned, thanks for writing this up! > > > I think the concept is good and and I like how it might be used to > > reduce the essential set. > > I'd tend to agree, but I'd probably detangle the definition from > Essential, as the only common thing is that these packages will just > be hard to remove, but should probably not inherit any of the other > Essential:yes facets.
That would be useful. > > My personal minor concern is that "Important" might become ambiguous > > since we also have a Priority labelled important[1]. > > That was precisely my concern too, the name does not look good, and > it's prone to much confusion. > Well, APT already had the field, and it's in use already, which is why I'd like to keep it like that. But: Are there any better proposals? - The obvious one would be Hard-to-Remove: yes, but that's somewhat ugly and would not allow us to add further meaning to it if needed. I don't know why that field was added, but: History: Jason Gunthrope added the Important field to APT in 1999-02-21, it was equal to Essential since then. I relaxed it a bit a few years ago to not force immediate configuration and the must-be-installed thing for it, but otherwise it's still the same. commit 138d4b3d84035f2e0547d7de999d7c7ebb6b7adc Author: Arch Librarian <[email protected]> Date: Mon Sep 20 16:52:55 2004 +0000 Free space check, fixed parser jump bug, added importat Author: jgg Date: 1999-02-21 08:38:53 GMT Free space check, fixed parser jump bug, added importat -- Debian Developer - deb.li/jak | jak-linux.org - free software dev When replying, only quote what is necessary, and write each reply directly below the part(s) it pertains to (`inline'). Thank you.
